As the cost of living continues to climb year after year, we understand how vital it is to maintain the stability of your pension. Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) play a key role in helping your pension keep growing as prices rise. A 2.1 per cent COLA increase was applied to your pension effective January 1, 2026.

In your first year of retirement, your COLA is pro-rated according to the number of months you’ve received your pension. You’ll receive the full COLA amount once you’ve received 12 pension payments in a calendar year.

Your COLA of 2.1 per cent matches the COLA cap recommended by the plan’s actuary, following the plan’s most recent actuarial valuation released in September.

The actuarial valuation measuring the plan from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024, reported that the plan remains fully funded. To maintain the plan’s current contribution rates, the board supplemented the surplus with funds from the plan’s rate stabilization account.

The valuation report informs COLA levels. The actuary’s review of the inflation adjustment account guides us in setting the maximum COLA for the next three years. Because of funding conditions, based on the recommendations of our actuary and following our funding policy, the board is applying a COLA cap for the next three years. Starting in January 2026, retired members will receive a COLA of either the increase in the Canadian consumer price index (CPI) from September to September or 2.1 per cent, whichever is lower.

COLAs are calculated using the monthly rates from the CPI, a measure of changes in the cost of goods and services calculated by Statistics Canada. While other plans may use different methods to calculate COLAs, no method results in consistently higher or lower COLAs when averaged over multiple years. A COLA cap helps ensure fairness across generations and supports the plan’s ability to make inflation adjustments available over the long term.

COLAs are a board priority, although they are not guaranteed under the plan. When provided, COLA increases apply to your lifetime pension. COLAs also apply to the bridge benefit and any temporary annuities while you are receiving them.